Pulling The Plug Life Without TV Isn’T As Rare As You May Think

James Gurney can play average American for days at a time.

Then, inevitably, someone mentions “Seinfeld” or “Survivor” and the truth surfaces: The New York author has only a vague notion of what they’re talking about.

Gurney, creator of Dinotopia, a popular children’s book series, is among the small minority of Americans who don’t watch television. The New York man has never seen moving images of Madonna, the Persian Gulf War or Rodney King being pummeled by Los Angeles cops.

“We’re moving boldly into the 19th century,” Gurney jokes when describing his family’s no-TV lifestyle.

Who wouldn’t want to relax with a favorite sitcom after a hard day’s work? Who wants to be stuck staring blankly when friends quip “The tribe has spoken” or “Is that your final answer?” Why pass on a pastime almost everyone else enjoys?

Barb Brock, a recreation management professor at Eastern Washington University, set to find out last spring. She didn’t want to know whether TV encourages violence, obesity or kids with stunted creativity — typical topics of TV research. She just wondered what kind of people chose to live on the other side of the pop-culture tracks.

Anti-technology types? Religious radicals? People who’d rather not talk about it?

Definitely not the latter. When Brock advertised for survey participants, she expected maybe 20. Gurney was among hundreds of respondents from 43 states. Brock surveyed only those who watch TV six hours or less each week. In the end, 280 people completed the 22-page questionnaire.

But in public, these folks say they usually keep quiet about their choice to forgo TV.

“They don’t want to be labeled holy snots or Lola granolas,” explains Brock. “They think they’re alone, and they don’t want to seem preachy about it. It’s like this little hidden gem.”

Unmasked, they look pretty familiar. Most are in their 30s, married with two kids and living in the suburbs. They garden, recycle, have two cars, a computer and a religious affiliation.

In other ways, they’re not so average. Most earn $40,000 to $60,000 per year and hold college degrees. Only 42 percent send their kids to public school.

Seventy percent believe they’re better than average at keeping current with news and sports. Their top news source is National Public Radio. They also rely on newspapers, local radio, and news magazines.

Brock’s survey is valuable because it sheds light on a lifestyle that hasn’t really been probed, says Frank Vespe, executive director of TV Turnoff Network, a nonprofit group that encourages families to watch less television.

“Hers is the first that I know of,” says Vespe. Most studies revolve around the effects of television.

But Julie Dobrow, a Tufts University professor who studies the media, says Brock’s survey has a weak point. It doesn’t represent typical America, she says, because Brock solicited participants through ads in Parent magazine, a children’s book catalog and TV-Free American News.

“From all three places, you’re going to get people who aren’t representative of the general American population,” says Dobrow. “They’re predisposed to answer in a certain way.”

Recruiting from a book catalog, for instance, could account for Brock’s finding that 80 percent of children in the study were described as above-average readers.

Gurney, the New York author, says he and his wife agreed to go TV-free before they married. As a kid, Gurney spent night after night glued to the tube while his parents dozed in reclining chairs. At 11 p.m., Gurney’s mom would nudge his dad and say, “Bob, wake up. It’s time to go to sleep.”

Gurney vowed his own boys would have happier memories. Their family time centers on reading, playing games such as pingpong and badminton, riding unicycles and listening to the radio.

“I kind of like being out of it when other people are talking about a show,” says Gurney, who asks questions to keep up the conversation. “Sometimes I feel like an anthropologist in our own world.”

Others in the survey quit watching almost by accident. Some families moved and didn’t immediately hook up an antenna, then became enchanted with their newfound free time. One woman, angered by a remark from anti-feminist Phyllis Schlafly, hurled a book at the TV and shattered it.

Some families keep a television for rare occasions but don’t give it center stage in the family room.

Christopher Welsh, an electrical engineer from Littleton, Colo., watches the occasional “X-Files” episode on an old 12-inch screen. That is, when he feels like lugging the TV from the master bedroom closet, where it’s stashed beneath clothes.

Should friends look askance, he explains, “It’s like not having chips around the house so you don’t eat them.”

Most families said their children didn’t go ballistic as expected when they ditched television. Some reported an adjustment period of a couple of weeks, when kids needed extra attention and help finding replacement activities. After that, they entertained themselves better than ever.

Sarah Aho, who teaches second grade at Lidgerwood Elementary in North Spokane, recalls competing with television characters for her dad’s attention. When grounded, her surefire tactic for early release was to interrupt one of his favorite shows.

Now Sarah and her husband, Mike, are reversing the pattern. They spend weekends and evenings with Anna, 7, and Nick, 5. The four ride bikes, ski, read, camp and play games together. They do chores at night to keep weekends free for play.

For special occasions (such as recently, when Anna’s teacher asked students to watch the Olympics) an out-of-the-way armoire holds a TV that gets poor reception.

The Ahos noted an unexpected bonus: Because the kids don’t see many commercials, they have incredibly short Christmas lists. They often request sports equipment and outdoor gear.

Jennie Chancey, who runs a vintage clothing company in Rileyville, Va., agrees with the 80 percent of survey participants who say their marriage is stronger without TV.

“I have many friends from college who complain about all the time their husbands spend plopped in front of sports games or sitcoms in the evenings - the only time of day they usually have to spend together,” she says.

Some families chuckle about serious peer pressure to repent their TV-free ways. Allie Smyth of Calgary said her son received a TV with a built-in VCR from a grandmother who considered him deprived. Others told of friends tempting them with free televisions.

Brock says some people interviewed believe TV does offer some good choices, such as PBS and the Discovery Channel. But they don’t want to risk developing a TV habit.

“They don’t think of it as evil; they think of it as a time-stealer,” Brock says.

Others find television downright eerie. A respondent who walks each night wrote: “Behind almost every curtain we see the flickering lights of a TV. … After you stop taking TV for granted, it seems a little weird to think of all those people, on street after street, city after city, all watching the same show together but separately.”

Brock acknowledges her study is open to criticism because she recruited participants through just a few publications. That’s something she hopes to address someday with broader-based research.

But for now, Brock says, “my purpose is to paint a rich, descriptive picture of their lives. I look at this as a kick-start.”

She also admits she may not be the most unbiased researcher. She and her husband, Vern, a South Hill veterinarian, haven’t owned a TV for 16 years.

But they aren’t purists like some of those surveyed, Brock says. Occasionally, the couple rent a TV to watch movies or videos.

And their 7-year-old daughter, Sydney, isn’t completely sold on the idea. She says she’d like to watch cartoons “when I’m bored and it’s cold outside. And there’s no snow. Or no puddles, so I can’t jump in them.”

Barb Brock listens and smiles. She’s content to have ushered scores of TV-free families out of the closet and into the limelight.

Brock believes one of the men surveyed best summed up her discovery: “Generally, non-TV watchers are normal people who don’t care much what the neighbors think.”

This sidebar appeared with the story: LIFESTYLES Permanently off EWU Professor Barb Brock’s survey produced these suggestions for turning off the TV:

* Put the TV in a place that’s inconvenient to reach.

* Go cold turkey; kids usually adapt within two weeks.

* Phase out cable and then network.

* Fix the TV so it shows only video, then limit videos.

* Sell the TV and tapes at a yard sale.

* Move and leave it behind.

To make the adjustment smoother:

* Post a list of things you like to do besides watch TV.

* Send the kids outside to play.

* Take photos of your kids being creative and keep them visible.

* Go for a walk during your favorite sitcom.

* Come out of the closet and tell friends what you’re trying to do. You may get more support than you think.